- November 28, 2024
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Seabreeze standout and top recruit Charles Nelson will take three official visits in January before deciding where he will play college football.
BY ANDREW O'BRIEN | SPORTS EDITOR
If there’s one thing Charles Nelson is, it’s busy.
Well, he’s fast, elusive and is pretty good at football, too.
Nelson, a Seabreeze standout and one of the top recruits in the area, has narrowed his list of potential schools to four: Oregon, Notre Dame, the University of Southern California and West Virginia.
“It’s still a slow process,” Nelson said last week at the Starbucks off Granada. It was Thursday — the day after Christmas — and there was no school. But he was up early and preparing for a workout. There aren’t many days off for elite Division I prospects.
About two weeks prior, Nelson took his official visit to Notre Dame. He will take a visit to USC on Jan. 17, West Virginia on Jan. 24, and then finish up with Oregon on Jan. 30.
After those three visits, he’ll head to Texas to play in an all-star football game.
Then it’s decision time: He’s required to commit to a school by Feb. 5, per NCAA rules and regulations.
“So, yeah, I have a busy January,” Nelson said.
While on the trip to Notre Dame, Nelson said, he got to walk on the practice field, see the facilities, tour the campus, and, of course, eat tons of great food.
“They treat you really good,” Nelson said, with a smile. “You’re like a king, man.”
While at Seabreeze, Nelson played offense, defense and special teams.
During his senior season, as he continued to recover from a major knee injury, he compiled more than 1,000 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns. He’s dangerous anytime he gets his hands on the ball. And that’s why colleges are recruiting him for offense and special teams, not defense.
Nelson said that the four schools he has targeted want him as a slot receiver and a kick/punt returner. But he said he’d play anywhere. And he hopes to play as a freshman, too.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I don’t care where I play. Wherever the coach wants me is where I’ll play.”
Nelson, who started really focusing on football at 11 years old, said he wants to study business in college, and he knows that education is the No. 1 priority.
“That’s what I’m going there for,” he said. “School first, football second. I’m not the biggest guy, so I’m going to be working hard to get where I need to be to play and do what I have to do so I can get on the field sometime early.”
With four years of high school football in the books, Nelson is looking ahead to the next chapter of his life: Four more years of college football. It will be much different.
But he said he will continue to do what he has been doing so that he can reach the ultimate: play in the NFL.
“That’d be a dream, man,” he said.
